Mana class

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, 7 years had passed.

In a vast field of flowers, a young boy lay down, gazing at the immense blue sky.

His black hair with hints of green fluttered in the wind, complementing his obsidian eyes and slender physique, giving him an unsettling and mysterious appearance.

This was Andrew, or rather, the now Liam.

As he contemplated the beautiful landscape, it seemed that I had been reincarnated into the novel "The Herald of Time," specifically in a rural area called "Millwood."

Due to its geographical location, it couldn't be considered a strategic point, and thus, it wasn't a target for the Eastern Empire.

In other words, it was an abandoned place by Lotus and a perfect site to grow and train. Lost in my thoughts, I saw two children of my age running towards me.

One was a boy with chestnut hair and deep blue eyes, sharp features despite his young age, and quite athletic.

The other was a pale girl with long black hair and truly mesmerizing ruby red eyes.

These two could be considered my two best friends, Anna and Peter.

I got to know Peter because our parents are very close friends, so they decided to bring us together.

Almost instantly, we became inseparable, and ever since, we have been best friends.

In my past life as Andrew, I never knew what it was like to have a friend.

Anyway, when we entered school at the age of 5, we encountered a girl who was being bullied.

This girl was Anna.

Due to her red eyes, Anna faced many difficulties.

Even though this world is technologically more advanced than my previous world, superstitions and religion still dominate in some isolated villages like this one.

Nonetheless, Peter, with his sense of justice befitting a third-rate novel protagonist, decided that we should help her.

From that moment on, she became part of our little group, and we became inseparable.

"Liam, Liam," they exclaimed in unison.

"What's going on?" I responded disdainfully.

"Why didn't you come to the Catoira ceremony?" Peter asked.

"Because I consider Catoira a waste of time."

Catoira was a kind of mass that took place every Saturday.

I didn't like going for two reasons:

firstly, I found it very boring to spend an hour of my life locked up in prayer.

And secondly, I know who they are praying to, and interestingly, those beings they worship are behind all the current problems. Their official appearance, however, will be in 12 years when I turn 19.

"You've been skipping Catoira for three weeks now," Anna sighed.

"The priest said that if you skip it again, you won't be welcome in the church anymore," Peter told me.

"I couldn't care less. I don't even know why you two go. Peter, you always fall asleep during the ceremonies, and Anna, you're constantly singled out by the priest just because of your red eyes. I don't understand why you bother attending if you're only going to waste your time," I said.

Peter and Anna fell silent.

"Well, putting that aside, have you studied for next week's exams?" I asked.

"The day I study for an exam will be the day the world ends," Peter replied.

"I'll start studying today, but I think I know a bit about the topic," Anna said timidly.

"Great, let's do a quick review," I exclaimed.

"No! I don't want to study, it's the weekend," Peter protested.

"Come on, Peter, it'll be fun," Anna said.

We pressured Peter a bit until he finally agreed to play along.

"Question one, what are the mana control rankings?" I asked.

While Peter was thinking, Anna said in a monotone voice:

"It is believed that when mana awakens, rings made of the same energy as the world appear in your heart. They are divided into Lesser Ring, Ring, and Greater Ring. When you reach the pinnacle of the Greater Ring, it breaks and becomes another ring. The more rings you have in your heart, the more power you will possess. The strongest person in the world is believed to have 11 rings, so we can't be sure of the limit of the human body."

"Correct," I said.

"I swear I knew that, if only you had let me finish thinking," Peter protested.

Ignoring him, I continued.

"Second question, how is your ring potential measured?"

Anna, to my surprise, this time she remained silent, but suddenly Peter spoke up:

"I know this one. If I'm not mistaken, it goes like this: [Awakened]: with a potential of 2 rings, [Superhuman]: with a potential of 3-4 rings, [Astral]: with a potential of 6-7 rings, [Semi-Divine]: with a potential of 8-9 rings, and finally [Divine]: with a unlimited potencial."

I was honestly surprised that he knew it, as he's not known for being very studious.

"Excellent, the final question: What is a profession?"

When I asked that question, neither of them raised their hand or spoke up.

"We don't know, Mr. Smarty Pants, just tell us already," Peter demanded.

Sighing, I said:

"To give you an idea, mana is like a living being. When it detects that we are compatible with something based on our soul and personality, it grants us a profession, also known as a class. There are infinite classes and subclasses, which are variations of a main class. For example, if there's an aggressive and not very intelligent person like you, Peter, they're likely to develop a [Warrior] class or a variant of it."

"Hey, that was an insult!" Peter shouted.

Ignoring him, I continued with my explanation:

"Professions grant you more talent in their specific field. For example, the swordsman profession grants you more talent in sword handling compared to a regular person. It can also give you unique abilities related to that profession, but that's when you reach a decent level of control over your class."

After finishing my explanation, Anna asked me:

"Can you have two classes?"

To clarify Anna's question, I replied:

"You can't have two classes, but you can have a class and a subclass." Anna nodded and didn't say anything else.

"Any other questions?" I asked.

Peter raised his hand and said:

"Can you change your profession?"

"Technically, no, but some have managed to evolve their class through an order communicated to them mentally by mana. In fact, one of the most powerful heroes, Zack Willson, evolved his [Lancer] class into [King of the Spear]," I replied.

Just as I was about to continue my explanation, someone shouted my name. I turned around and found Leo, the main bully from our school, standing there.